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Shell Foundation projects in Mexico

Currently, about 25 million people cook with fuelwood in rural Mexico. Most of them are located in the highlands of Central and Southern Mexico - such as the Purepecha Region in Michoacan State. This region shows an intensive pattern of fuelwood use, which dominates the energy use pattern both in households as well as in thousands of micro-enterprises devoted to hand-made tortilla making. Large quantities of fuelwood are used in traditional open fires, with negative consequences for local inhabitants. Particular concerns come from the practice of tortilla making, which accounts for about half of total fuelwood consumption, and requires women to spend 2-4 hr/day inhaling the smoke from the fires, and up to 8 hrs/day for those women devoted to tortilla-making for selling. Local forests are highly bio-diverse but increasingly degraded with negative local and global environmental impacts. During the past two decades, there has been an increasing penetration of LPG, particularly on the larger urban centres and the higher income levels. However, rather than switching completely to LPG, economic and cultural reasons favour a long-standing pattern of multiple fuel use, with very few savings in fuelwood and health benefits.

[top] [end]Promoting clean multiple-fuel cooking for improved rural livelihoods in Latin America



  • Project co-ordinator: GIRA
  • Project location: Michoacan State, Central Mexico
  • Project goals: The proposed project builds on field-tested, innovative, systemic and participative approach centered in poor rural women to facilitate the transition of local households and micro enterprises to a cleaner and more sustainable pattern of energy use
  • Duration: 36 Months


Page created: 03 December 2003; Last edited: 14 October 2004; Version: 4
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: ShellFoundationHHEMexico @HEDON: WJAA